RD&D-Programme 2004 - SKB

to transmute all transuranics from uranium fuel in present-day light-water reactors. Others see
ADS as a complement that is particularly suitable for transmuting neptunium, americium and
curium, while most of the plutonium should be burned in light-water reactors. In the long term,
these systems may be replaced by fast reactors.
There is no consensus among experts on which technical route to follow for the important parts
of a P&T system.
Interest in P&T is mainly concentrated to the national research laboratories in the USA, Europe,
Japan and a few other countries. The universities in many countries, including Sweden, also
show strong interest. The research is attracting considerable interest among students in nuclear
science. Numerous important research programmes are being pursued at universities and
research laboratories in many countries.
The nuclear energy industry, however, has shown only a limited interest in this work, which is
mainly being pursued in France and a few other countries with large nuclear programmes. The
nuclear energy industry’s long-term interest is more focused on new types of reactors – often
called Generation IV.
National and industrial R&D efforts on spent fuel and high-level waste management in nearly
all countries are (and should be) primarily focused on resolving questions surrounding deep
geological disposal. Despite all the delays and setbacks experienced in many countries, the
prospects of achieving this goal are much better and lie much closer in time than the very longterm
and costly goal of developing, launching and operating an efficient system for partitioning
and transmutation.
When all of these circumstances are weighed together, the conclusion can be drawn that it is
unlikely that industrial-scale ADS facilities can be put into operation before 2050.
Successful development of P&T will not render deep geological disposal obsolete. The complex
processes will inevitably generate some waste containing small amounts of long-lived radionuclides.
A deep repository is required for this waste. Successful development of P&T may,
however, reduce the requirements on the engineered barriers in the deep repository, as well as
the volumes needed for waste deposition.
For Sweden it is important to follow international development efforts and to maintain a
reasonable level of competence in the country at least as long as a substantial part of our
electricity is produced by nuclear power. Competence developed through P&T research is also
valuable and useful in the work of maintaining and developing safety and fuel supplies for the
existing light-water reactors. And it is also of importance for assessing the further development
of the waste management programme.
As already noted, development of P&T for large-scale operation can be expected to take several
decades. Transmuting all nuclear fuel from already existing nuclear power reactors alone would
take at least another 100 years. P&T on an industrial scale requires large nuclear facilities that
must be accepted by society.
Introduction of a system for P&T in order to efficiently reduce the quantity of long-lived
radionuclides that must be disposed of in a geological deep repository would thus require a
long-term commitment to nuclear energy.
The costs of P&T cannot be predicted with any accuracy before the systems have been better
defined and tested. The estimates that have been made point towards electricity production
costs that are between 10 and 50 percent above the costs from modern light-water reactors. The
investments needed in R&D and in new nuclear facilities are extremely large. However, they are
spread over long time, and most should be regarded as investments in energy production. It is
not economically defensible to implement P&T without making use of the energy generated by
the process. This is particularly true of transmutation of plutonium. Some experts believe that
it might be feasible to build small ADS facilities specifically for transmutation of americium,
curium and neptunium.
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